So in two weeks I'm going on a cruise, and one of the stops, as well as the longest stop, happens to be SXM. I already checked with our travel agent and she said all the locals, including the cab drivers, know Maho beach. I lucked out in that my stop in SXM falls on a weds so Air France will bless me with their presence.

Has anyone else hit SXM for a quick visit while on a cruise? I hear the problem isn't getting there but getting back. The boat doesn't leave until 730ish, so that should give me plenty of time after AF to get back. Or will it?

Joey

I would love to fly a cargo plane full of rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong!

I have made the trip to Maho Beach several times while in port on a cruise. It's a piece of cake. If I recall correctly, the cab ride is between 30-45 minutes depending on traffic. I don't remember how much the ride costs, though.

You're absolutely right that it is easier to get a cab going there, since there will be cabs waiting at the pier. Going back, you have to either get lucky and have an empty cab go right by the beach, or you have to walk over to one of the hotels and wait for a cab there. You should have plenty of time after AF arrives to get back to the pier -- you may even have enough time to wait for AF to depart, but I don't recall off the top of my head what time that is. However, after standing out there on the beach all day under the very, very hot sun, you may not want to wait around for AF to depart! Just don't wait until the last minute to start looking for a cab -- the latest I would start looking is around 4:30ish.

Bring sunscreen, money for bottled water and lunch at Sunset Beach Bar (last time I was there it was $1/bottle for water, and the lunch was less than $10), and be patient during the frequent lulls in action. There should be umbrellas on the deck at the bar, and I believe you can also now rent them for the beach. You'll need one of those to keep your body from turning bright red and your camera from turning into a mess of melted plastic.

If you can't find a cab back you could always grab a bus, which is also very cheap and doesn't take too long at all to get back to Philipsburg. They are fairly regular and you can get one from the Maho Hotel.

Glass wise at the SSBB I mostly use my 24-105 as that's plenty, sometimes going with the 10-22 for the real close up overhead stuff. You'll need something fairly wide for the AF340.

I only used my 70-200 once and that was from the Hotel Roof. It's pretty pointless using a 70-200 at the SSBB unless you want twotter close ups.

I'm actually heading out there tomorrow for a week, so can't wait to get back there!

I'm guessing that's the famous bar. I'm thinking I'll have my 19-35 on the D200 for the jetliners and the 24-85 on my D50 for the smaller Island happers and what not.
Going through pics in the DB, I've gathered that in June it is better to position myself on the north side of the beach. Would this be right?

Thanks again for the help!

Joey

I would love to fly a cargo plane full of rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong!

Quoting Jakbar (Reply 1):You should have plenty of time after AF arrives to get back to the pier -- you may even have enough time to wait for AF to depart, but I don't recall off the top of my head what time that is

Quoting Sluger020889 (Reply 6):I will be there on the 13th, one week after this flight. And I made a mistake the boat leaves at 6 PM, but it gets there at 8 AM, sounds like I can get a good days worth of spotting done!

Just got back from SXM. It's pretty quiet out there at the moment with the best days by far were saturday and sunday. The middle of the week was unfortunately much quieter, so on a wednesday the larger equipment was the 2 x AA 757's, the 1 x US 757 and the AF 343. Also Insel's MD83 was about all week and DAE's F100. The MD83 and F100 were around in the morning between about 9 and 11, then it was pretty quiet through until 1-1.30pm at which point the heavies came in until 3pm. After 3 it quietens down again.

In between there are plenty of Dash 8's, Islanders and Towtters with a few biz jets to keep you happy.

Light wise, the sun was pretty much overhead from 9-12 making the Sunset Beach Bar shootable (ish) verging on backlit, after which the 1 min walk to the other side of the runway is needed, but there is also a small bar there for drinks, plus the supermarket is very close by. Food was good at the SSBB all week.

Quoting JRowson (Reply 9):Light wise, the sun was pretty much overhead from 9-12 making the Sunset Beach Bar shootable (ish) verging on backlit, after which the 1 min walk to the other side of the runway is needed, but there is also a small bar there for drinks, plus the supermarket is very close by. Food was good at the SSBB all week.

Thanks thats just what I was wondering...don't know about that 1 minute walk though, might need a cab. I will be there on Wednesday, which is when the boat gets there so that's my only choice. But I'm looking forward to seeing not just the heavies but the little guys too, and its good that everything dies down around 3 cause I'm heading back to the boat at 330.

Thanks

Joey

I would love to fly a cargo plane full of rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong!

As an add-on to this thread....I'm in the Dominican Republic ( Puerto Plata) for 2 weeks from the 17th September. Does anyone know of any flights from Puerto Plata to SXM, either a.m. out and p.m. back or next day return ?

Airport to the Maho Beach Motel cost me Seven dollars U.S. and I had to share the cab. The ride is usually that as that is what they charged me going back. It would not be a nice walk as there are no sidewalks for most of the road along side the perimeter fence.

Yeah, the cab ride from the airport terminal to Maho beach was $11 for 3 of us and that was a 3 minute ride, and it was the same the 4 times we did it. It's gonna be a lot more from Philipsburg as it's about a 20 minute ride plus they do like seem to like to have "special" prices in the shops when the cruiseliners are in, so i guess the same might apply to the taxis.
Last time we went from Maho into Philipsburg we took the bus and that was like $1-2 each way..so much cheaper and fairly regular.